| Squilliam said: What im saying is this: Much of how the current console generation will play out has already been set in motion. They way forward now is not fully reliant on user experience or technology. The Wii will continue to outsell the rest of the field. However with Wii M+ Nintendo are being directly challenged, its not a free ride. Sony and Microsoft were content to not challenge the Wii until this technology appeared and then they timed their response to match. Sony is targetting the Wii at a position centred slightly upstream from where Wii M+ exists, they want the best Wiimote clone out there, they want to best the original technically. Their goals are likely to prevent the Wii from gaining ground in their core areas and to take advantage of the Wii M+ adoption to fuel development for their own mote copy because they couldn't release a challenger until M+ appeared. Microsoft is targetting the Wii at a position centred just below where Nintendo entered the market. They are not relying on Nintendos own actions to drive their response like Sony is, and their goal is to attack the Wii in its expanded market. Natal is closer to WiiFit than the Wiimote itself. If Sony wants the gamers and Nintendo wanted the non gamers, then Microsoft could be said to be going for the not gamers part of the market. It sounds funny and its a slightly misleading analogy, but thats the best I can think of. |
While I agree with your sentiments of why MS and Sony made their motion controls and their goals, I disagree with your assumption about Nintendo wanting (only) non gamers.
Wii launched with Nintendo quickly suppling a solid mix of new market/casual games and a big dose of their biggest core IPs. This allowed them to capture their core group as well as bring in droves the expanded market.
3rd parties failed to see the core and only went after the expanded for better and worse. However, now with Wii being so high in marketshare and that trend continuing, 3rd parties are also bring their core titles as well. Its obvsious from the drought of big Nintendo games in 2009 that this was the year Nintendo wanted 3rd parties to step in and push their IPs. Its starting to show.
However, based on this E3 and demos of 2 Mario games and a metroid game, we can tell 2010 will bring another round of strong 1st party core titles. As well as many more quality 3rd party titles.
That's the whole point to disruption.
1. Satisfy your existing audience.
2. Use disruptive tech to expand to typically non consumer of your good.
3. move upstream over time to capture remaining core group.
Wii has successfully done 1 and 2. 2009 and 2010 will demonstrate a successful move on 3.
